Elizabeth Smart to Become ABC News Contributor
Nearly ten years ago, Elizabeth Smart became a household name when she was abducted from her family's home in Utah and sparked a nationwide media frenzy. As a 23-year-old, she has just inked a deal with ABC to cover missing person cases on a number of programs, including "Good Morning America" and "Nightline."
With the Casey Anthony trial fresh in everyone's minds, ABC insists Smart's hiring is unrelated, but the timing of the two is uncanny, as Smart is scheduled to begin as early as next week.
ABC also emphasizes that the purpose of Smart's hire is not for her to retell her own kidnapping ordeal, which ABC spokeswoman Julie Townsend explains has already "been well told and retold."
Instead, Townsend believes Smart can help "viewers understand missing-persons stories from the perspective of knowing what a family experiences when a loved one goes missing," due to her nine-month abduction by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee.
Smart, an advocate for missing children, will appear "when there are missing children or missing-person cases in the news."
While Smart has never been on the reporting side of journalism, she is not new to television cameras, having been previously interviewed by Katie Couric for NBC, Oprah Winfrey, and Nancy Grace.
- Aubrey Vaughan's blog
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Comments
Is this really a good idea?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 7:34am.
I don't see anything good coming from this at all. This can't be good for her like this. That's like putting a recovering alcoholic to work in a bar except in an extremely negative fashion.
And yeah, I know she's an advocate for missing children, but that doesn't mean squat when it comes to being a commentator on it or whatever she's going to do.
It's on ABC, so I wouldn't watch it anyway, but if I were watching ABC, I would feel real uncomfortable watching her segment knowing what she's gone through.
-Jon
I'd love to see her covering the G. Stephanopoulos abduction.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 9:21am.
.
Dude
Submitted by shawn. on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 12:39pm.
The guy sucks as being unbiased, but you don't really want to see him abducted would you?
Tongue-in-cheek, Dude.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 12:43pm.
Also notice I didn't say murdered.
I didn't say you did
Submitted by shawn. on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 12:46pm.
.....but in a way what Ms Smart went through was almost worse.
It was horrendous, but I doubt she would agree with that now
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 1:56pm.
.
Of course ABC says....
Submitted by SavageSadie on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 3:21pm.
that Smart's story has been well told and retold. For years Good Morning America had in-depth features about her every other week to tell about how she wanted to have her privacy and resume a normal life.
I am in no way minimizing what she went through, and she's now an adult who can choose this job. Still, it reeks of sensationalism.
If you know who you are, you can go anywhere.--Flannery O'Connor